(MacDonald would have likely earned a title shot with a win over Condit, and has now gone down with an “undisclosed” injury. Methinks something foul is afoot.)

Thus far, 2013 has been a year surprisingly bereft of injuries, at least in the MMA community. Sure, there have been a couple of withdrawals here and there, but a UFC 151- level crisis? Nothing of the sort. And while we can be thankful that the first major injury of 2013 isn’t anywhere near as devastating to the upcoming UFC 158 card as Hendo’s was to UFC 151, it still leaves the card without a co-main event and minus a key rematch in the welterweight division.

According to multiple sources close to the fight, MacDonald suffered an undisclosed injury in training recently, which has forced the young Canadian fighter to withdraw from his fight against Condit at UFC 158.

No opponent has been signed to replace MacDonald against Condit next month. As of now, he is still expected to compete on the card.

When questioned on what he thought could be the possible cause of his injury, MacDonald reportedly exclaimed, “Stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now,” before quickly exiting the room to “return some videotapes.” A strange turn of events indeed.

[UPDATE #1]

It is now being reported that Condit will in fact face Johny Hendricks in MacDonald’s absence — arguably just as interesting a matchup as Condit/MacDonald II in our opinion. Arguably. This move has left Jake Ellenberger without a dance partner for UFC 158, as a replacement opponent has yet to be named.

We will update you on Ellenberger’s sitauation as soon as the details are made available.

Rory MacDonald has the kind of lifeless, black eyes that would make Dr. Sam Loomis shiver at night. For an example of this, see his post-fight call-out of Carlos Condit at UFC on FOX 5, in which he delivered a speech so precise and monotone that it begged audiences to ask whether or not he had practiced it over and over and over again on the collection of flesh-covered marionettes he keeps locked in that one room in his house with a deadbolt on the door.

Obviously shaken up by MacDonald’s speech was that of Dana White, who, fearing he would end up as a bald cap on one of those marionettes, caved into Rory’s demands faster than the French in insert war of your choice here. So just five days out from his dominant win over B.J. Penn, MacDonald has already been booked to rematch the ironically-nicknamed “Natural Born Killer” in Condit at UFC 158 in Montreal. The man responsible for both MacDonald’s only professional loss and the shrine of hair and blood samples that looms over the Canadian’s fireplace, Condit is fresh off a title-losing bid to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 154. Condit and MacDonald first met at UFC 115, where despite stealing the first two rounds, “Ares” found himself eating elbow sammiches for the majority of the third until referee Kevin Dornan called a stop to the bout with just seven seconds remaining. It is no coincidence that Kevin Dornan has been missing ever since.

And speaking of people getting exactly what they wanted, it looks like GSP will likely be defending his title against rival Nick Diaz at the same event, although according to Dana White, the “deal isn’t done yet.” Diaz’s manager, Cesar Gracie, confirmed that the former Strikeforce welterweight champion has been offered the bout, but if you ask us, we’d recommend that you save your excitement for the moment these two are actually staring at each other from across the cage. Celebrating before that is simply setting yourself up for disappointment.

Following Rory MacDonald‘s three-round assault of BJ Penn at UFC on FOX 5, the 23-year-old welterweight contender made it clear that he wanted a rematch with Carlos Condit, who previously TKO’d him with seven seconds remaining in a fight that MacDonald might have won on points. (You can revisit MacDonald’s darkest moment right here.) As Rory told Ariel Helwani on Fuel TV, “I was humiliated and embarrassed after that fight, and I think about that fight all the time, it haunts me, and I really need to get past that chapter in my life. My challenge is out there, it’s up to Carlos to accept my challenge…he’s coming off a loss, he’s gotta fight somebody, it might as well be me.”

Makes sense to us. But does it make sense to Condit? According to his manager Malki Kawa, hell yes. “Carlos Condit doesn’t back down from any man,” Kawa told MMAWeekly. “If the UFC asks us to fight Rory MacDonald, Carlos will take the fight.”

It wasn’t surprising to see Cesar Gracie fire Caio Terra for helping nemesis Carlos Condit, but it was sort of odd that Gracie had so little to say about it. Never one to shy away from calling someone out, it was strange to see Cesar post a half-assed rant on Facebook about the firing and be done with it. Fortunately, he was asked to address the firing on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour, and by the time he shows up on the show, he does not disappoint.

It is no wonder Dana White called Georges St. Pierre the “King of Pay Per View” (PPV) on a conference call tuesday. UFC 154, which featured the return of the welterweight champion, succesfully defending his title against interim champ Carlos Condit, did anywhere between 680,000 to 700,000 buys, according to Dave Meltzer.

Both UFC 148 and 145 were centered on intense and well-publicized rivalries. UFC 154′s success can likely be attributed more singularly to the personal popularity of the returning Georges St. Pierre. As Meltzer explains:

There was a period of time, back around 2004-2005, when folks spoke about a young welterweight named Georges St. Pierre as if it were inevitable that the Canadian would one day be the welterweight champion of the world. These days, the same type of hype surrounds St. Pierre’s training partner Rory MacDonald.

Rory will be fighting BJ Penn next on the UFC on Fox 5 card but is so good and so young that he constantly has to answer the question of whether or not he’d fight his Tri-Star stablemate St. Pierre.

Before last week’s UFC 154 in his home town of Montreal, MacDonald answered questions from fans. If you hear past Rory’s dry delivery and watch the whole session (above) you’ll be treated to an earnest sounding kid, both full of confidence and hard on himself (for example, he refers to his loss to Condit as getting his ass kicked instead of losing at the very end of a fight he was previously winning).

MacDonald believes with certainty that he will become the welterweight champion one day but says that “me and Georges are not going to fight.”

I was seated a few rows above the exit ramp, where the fighters made their way backstage following their fights. It provided me a great view of the action, the fighters as they walked by, and Dan Hardy’s mohawk. Hardy was in attendance, and made frequent trips back and forth between cageside and backstage. So, consider it official: Dan Hardy pees a lot. Maybe. Also seen frequenting the backstage area were Brittney Palmer and Arianny Celeste, both of whom are (quickly) escorted out after the third round commences in each fight, and Bruce Buffer, who was rather short. I also managed to catch Ben Fowlkes walking down towards cageside and yelled after him, but whether my voice was lost in the din of the crowd or Fowlkes is just terrified of being associated with CagePotato yet again, I cannot say. (It’s definitely the latter.)

The Canadian crowd was pretty solid throughout. They’re not quite as partisan as the Brazilian crowds, but damn if they don’t cheer their fighters on — even if they don’t know who those fighters are. I suspect no one there knew who Ontario’s own Antonio Carvalho was. (I also suspect I was part of this group.) They occasionally boo too early, but in general they seemed fairly knowledgeable. Unfortunately, that generalization did not apply to the group sitting directly behind me, who complained that Chad Griggs was matched up unfairly with Cyrille Diabate — he was, but not because he was “tiny” — and were under the impression that an armbar was “a wrestling move.”

After every UFC event, there is a press conference where some of the main fighters are brought out to field questions from the media in attendance. While over the course of a presser you are bound to get many of the same questions repeated in slightly different ways by media members, they are always still interesting to watch if only because of the unique moment and that there are usually at least a few insightful comments given.

For example, in last night’s UFC 154 post presser we hear from and see a bruised, cut and battered Georges St. Pierre talk about how he feels just a few minutes after a successful long-awaited return bout that he once feared would never happen. We also see his beaten opponent, Carlos Condit, still eloquent though despondent after coming so close to realizing his professional dream only to have it violently taken from him by the returning champion.

Above we bring you just about the full presser from last night (it cuts out after about two minutes. When it does, go ahead and fast forward to about the 7:30 mark and it picks back up). Dana White and a few other fighters are also in attendance.

GSP discusses not finishing fights, ring rust, Anderson Silva and Johny Hendricks. Condit says how close he feels he was to beating St. Pierre in the third round and about making another title run in the future.

For those that like their information less complete and quicker, check out an additional video with highlights of St. Pierre and Condit’s comments after the jump.

If you watched the UFC Primetime documentary mini series on Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit you saw that Condit brought multi-time Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion Caio Terra champ into his camp to help him train. What you may not have realized is that Terra had also been affiliated with Cesar Gracie and his team of fighters, including welterweight contender Nick Diaz.

Cesar and his Gracie Fighter team don’t play that, apparently. Last night Cesar posted on twitter that Terra was off their squad.

Gracie got personal on his facebook account, reportedly. According to the UG Blog (who are friends with Cesar on Facebook because they are so cool, evidently), Gracie posted, “”OK we all saw that someone from our team got a camera and a few bucks put in their face and decided to show his true colors and stab his team mates in the back.”

“No worries, that person is gone for good and I can’t be happier. That person would also be wise not to show his sissy little face around here again.”